In June of 1948, Yankee Stadium was alive and roaring to watch an aging Joe Louis take on another aging boxer, Jersey Joe Walcott. Two years earlier, Louis — facing financial trouble — fought Walcott for 15 rounds and took an awful beating. When the decision was read by the public address announcer, giving Louis the win with a split decision, the fans booed loudly for five straight minutes. Now, Louis was determined to show the fans, he was still the greatest champion of all time and defeat Walcott soundly. Two aging heavyweights, once great, battled knocking each other to the ground and finally in the 11th round Walcott didn’t get up and Louis was the winner. Still, every one of those 42,000 fans who watched the fight knew this was a battle of two boxers who were past their prime and should walk away from the ring.
Many more than 42,000 fans watched the Colts battle the Broncos on Thursday night and I am confident everyone felt they were watching two former great quarterbacks who were past their prime, playing on instinct and feel with declining talent and the skill they once possessed. The boxing analogy is important, because quarterbacks are often like boxers, especially late in their careers. Their eye level comes down, they react slower to the punches thrown, they cannot escape or deflect the hard punch and their legs don’t have the same explosive moment. Both Matt Ryan and Russell Wilson look like they are past their prime, and it’s hard to imagine they can play beyond this season.
For the Colts, Ryan’s decline places them on the quarterback search list of teams. This has been happening for the last three years in Indy, so it’s nothing new. For the Broncos, they are screwed — considering they clearly made one of the worst trades in NFL history by acquiring Wilson and have compounded that mistake by paying him. Both quarterbacks are scary bets moving forward. Do you trust either one to lead a comeback, or win the game? Not a chance.
Being a general manager in the NFL requires making two hard decisions. Everything else isn’t as important as who will be the quarterback and who will be the head coach. And so far, GM George has missed on both decisions, seemingly badly. Wilson looks like the Seattle QB of last season, only everyone made excuses for his inability to be the Russ we once remember. This doesn’t happen with old boxers, as fans can see them aging, see them miss punches and take too many hard hits. Boxers leave the game because they must leave. Old quarterbacks stay because there is always someone who believes the old magic will come alive. With aging quarterbacks in the NFL, we make excuses, blame the scheme and never believe their skill set might be declining. Wilson’s poor play was there on the tape last year, ask any Seattle fan. They knew Russ wasn’t cooking like the had in the past.